Your Mac timeline?

February 1994 - bought my first computer, a Performa 575 and a Color StyleWriter 2400
June 1996 - upgraded to a PowerMac 7200/75 and a 19" Viewsonic CRT
January 1998 - upgraded to a PowerMac G3/266 DT
April 2002 - upgraded to an iMac G4/800 15" LCD, still using it today
June 2004 - finally got me a PowerBook - G4 1.33/15", along with a 20GB 4G iPod
2006 - I'll be looking to upgrade to either a 20" Cinema Display/PowerMac G5 combo, or a 23" Cinema Display/Mac Mini combo (if they are G5 by then).

hm around 95 (or was it already 96 ?) i remember playing at a friends house with his mac (first they had a 68 something then they had powerpc one) the powerpc was impressive, to me as an 13 year old, but around 99 they sold it ...

i could add 20 minutes playing around with mac osx last spring at an apple reseller but that's simply not enough (and in those minutes i was playing around to see if standard unix commands... yes i'm guilty of that nerdy pleasure)
but it finsihed the deal for me

That's all, folks! I like squeezing every last bit out of them - I would have kept the Power Mac for longer, but realised I really needed a laptop in university. The plan for the Pismo is to replace it with a Powerbook G5, whenever that appears.

Family Macs (i.e. when I took the PowerMac to university because parents didn't like it):
1999 - iMac Rev B. (233Mhz 750)
2002/3 - Dad got a 12" iBook for work (not sure exact specs)
2004 - Mom replaced iMac with 14" iBook (again, not sure of exact specs)

And my sister got a Powerbook 1400cs/117 (PPC 603e) when she went to university in 1997 - now she steals my mom's iBook periodically, though she'll be buying her own iBook in the very near future.

Although I used many macs before I owned one my history with my computer purchases is as fallows.

1993 Recieved Tax Returns from first Job (not including paper route, around $300 Fed) purchased a Mac II CPU (no video, monitor, keyboard or mouse) from the want ads (kinda the ebay of its time, though it still is in use today). It took me a month to save up for the keyboard and mouse. Another month to save up for a video card and another month or two for the monitor. I had (and the family as well) my first working computer by august. It lasted till the winter of 96 when the Hard Drive crashed.

1996 Purchased a Performa 630CD using a new CoputerCity Credit Card. Stupid mistake, should have gone with the Quadra (anything), would have been cheaper and faster, hind sight 20/20. Sold the Mac II CPU (with 68030@33Mhz upgrade) to a guy in WI looking for a comp to put his HD in for a server.

1998 Starmax 3000/200DT

2001 PowerMac G3/233 Biege. Upgraded to an apple G3/333 Card.

2002 PowerMac G4/800 (Quicksilver 2002) Still my baby, and will be till 2006, at least, as I am still paying for it till then.

2004 Gateway something or other with PIII 800 that a client was going to throw out, using it to Fold@home.

1993 - Dad buys a Quadra 610, with a 14" display and caddy loading CD-ROM. I Played Doom II, Wolfenstein 3D - oh yeah! I went with him to the store, and wanted him to get the new Powermac 6100, but it was too much money (the Quadra, with display, printer, and some software, topped $3000). I soon discovered how to boot with extensions off so I could disable At Ease. Intenet access with a 14.4 modem. I became a member of the Cleveland Freenet.

1996 - I bought a Powerbook 180c at a NASA auction for $125. Needed a battery and AC adapter, but it ran, so now I had my own Mac and could surf the 'net in my room. Battery life was an abysmal 45 minutes on a full charge with a new battery. At a similar auction a friend bought a large lot of computers, among which were a IIci, 2 IIsi's, and a IIfx. I traded him a new copy of Red Hat for the Macs.

Early 1999 - I bought a Rev.C iMac, Lime Green 266MHz, my first (and still only) brand new Mac. I actually liked the "hockey puck" mouse. This computer was a real workhorse throughout my undergraduate career. Countless "all nighters" are spent in front of this machine as I drink coffe, tea and Mountain Dew and write last minute term papers. Also during this time period tragedy strikes, as the IIsi's and IIfx are "accidentally" thrown away by a certain family member who previously complained that they were hogging valuable shelf space in the garage. In retaliation, I get a Performa 475 that my friend was getting rid of and place in the same spot on the shelf.

2001 - The iMac gets upgraded, with maxed RAM and an external USB burner (which was slow, and failed after a year). Hard drive in my PB 180c fails. I get a PowerBook 160 off a co-worker for peanuts and put its upgraded 500MB hard disk in my 180c. With no ethernet, however, the Powerbook is doomed when we switch from dialup to broadband internet.

2003 - High voltage board fries in iMac. Collateral damage requires that the power supply board and CRT be replaced. $400 is still cheaper than a new Mac, I guess. I soon discover that the motherboard suffered damage too, with random weird problems cropping up that would take pages to describe. I limp on with it.

2004 - After trying OS X in my iMac, I decide that my needs have outgrown my Lime green companion and buy a used Powermac G4 Dual 533, my present machine. I salvage a 19" CRT from work (upgraded to flat panels) to use with the machine. Heavily upgraded, I'm planning on nursing it through at least till I complete my Master's, after which hopefully I will have a better job so I can buy a new Mac.

At work, a Powermac 6100 "breaks" and I take it home before they throw it away. Turns out it had a bad SCSI cable. I scrounged the cable from our now long-decomissioned Quadra and the machine springs to life. Finally, I have the computer I wanted back in '93 .

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